Just a Sonata Away
by Converse r life
Summary: Once lost, but now returned, the weight of happily ever after oftentimes destroys more than it defends those in need of it most.
1. Chapter 1: Lost

**Hello everyone, I wrote this story almost six years ago, and over the past two years, I have been completely overhauling it. I know the first chapter is a little much, but the rest of it is good, honest, just give it your best shot. I promise, you won't be disappointed!**

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><p>"Stupid locker! Open!"<p>

The annoyed voice of a young teenage girl rang out angrily as she banged her fist against the metal. Muttering something fierce under her breath, the girl reared her foot against the metal locker, and was rewarded when it finally opened.

Ignoring the hustle and bustle, she focused on her own problems. Quickly dropping to her knees, she started to load her bag with heavy textbooks. While she was doing this, without any prior warning, she was literally _shoved_ into the locker by someone's knee. She winced in pain, but used to it by now, she didn't make a scene.

Instead, the girl took a deep, gasping breath, trying to center her thoughts. Nearly suffocating, she grabbed her last book, pushed her glasses up her nose again, and devised a plan. With all the strength she could muster, she pushed hard backwards against his knee, finally freeing herself.

Unfortunately, the same could be said for her papers and books.

"No, not now!" Marcie moaned, seeing all things scattered across the floor.

With a sigh, she grabbed her backpack and scrambled after whatever she could find.

She crawled through the throng of students, carefully, but quickly, trying to make her way through them. She gathered as many as she could, filling her arms, but she was no match for the dozens of feet that kept stepping, and consequently, kicking, everything away from her.

Finally, when she had at least half picked up, she came to the realization that this was as good as it was going to get. Shoving what she could into her bag, the girl, who was still on her knees in the middle of the hallway, looked longingly towards her still open locker, before sighing and getting up. Some things would just have to wait.

Weaving her way through the crowd of students was tough, but finally she managed to push her way through and made it outside. More determined now, she pushed her glasses back up her nose, and confidently surveyed her surroundings. It looked like everything would be fine after all.

Her self-assurance lasted only a few seconds. Due to weather concerns, football practice had been canceled today, which meant that she had to catch the bus back home. And right now, said bus was leaving.

For almost a minute, her jaw hung open. Then, when the rationality that she was being left behind kicked in, she quickly changed her tune.

"No! Wait, please!" Desperately, Marcie started to run after the vehicle, though she was weighed down significantly by her bag. "I'm right here! C'mon, wait up!"

Her pleas were, apparently, unheard or uncared for, because the bus sped forward. In all, the girl was left on the sidewalk, hope dashed in her eyes. She shook her head at the entire situation.

"Today is just not my day," she groaned.

With a heavy sigh, she started to make her way, on foot, towards home. The walk wouldn't be long, at the very least. Besides, she reasoned, being alone for awhile wasn't so bad.

As was usual of a Tuesday afternoon, the only cars that whizzed by her were those of the upperclassmen. No one stopped to offer a ride because, like all freshmen, her place was on the bus. That was made expressively clear. It was these types of high school social-laws that governed what seemed like the tiniest town in all of America.

"It could be worse," Marcie mused, shoving her cold hands into her jacket pockets. The fall weather this year had been particularly brutal. "I mean, it ain't _perfect_, but it's good 'nough."

She kept walking, filling her mind with what she would need to do once she got home. She had to start on the laundry, vacuum and mop up, throw out some bottles…she sighed. It was going to be a long day.

"I hope Adam isn't messin' around. Ever since he got with Caity he's been so _weird_," she mumbled, rolling her eyes at the thought. "I swear, when _I'm_ a senior, I won't act like that."

She sighed again, shaking her head. Her brother in love was just _gross_. And right now, since another pair of hands was out of the question, she would have to focus on cleaning up before anyone got home.

Unless…he was already there.

In an unclean house.

Waiting for her.

Angry.

"Oh, God," she mumbled to herself, stopping for a moment. She felt nausea start to rise in her throat, and pressed her fingers to her temples as she closed her eyes tightly. "Oh, no, no—"

A strong gust of unseasonable wind whipped around, making the girl's blue eyes fly open. Stumbling, she tried to regain her balance, but the wind was still swirling around her, harder and harder. She tried to take a step forward but she was immediately pushed back, almost falling again.

"Whoa!" She cried out, struggling to keep her balance against the harsh breeze.

She wrapped her arms around herself tighter, trying to see through the short red hair whipping at her eyes. Heart pumping in fear, Marcie fought desperately to run, to walk, to do anything but just stand there.

"What's going _on_?!" She yelled, hardly able to even get the words out of her mouth.

The wind was carrying away the sound of her voice! Feeling herself being pushed further back by this freak storm, she came to the split second decision to do what came naturally. Opening her mouth, she reared up to let out an ear-shattering scream that would certainly be heard—!

"Oomph!"

Marcie felt herself suddenly pushed over, her breath momentarily knocked out. Eyes wide open, the girl felt the acute awareness of ground beneath her, and really high foliage above her.

Numb with shock, she tried to understand what on earth had just happened.

One minute, there's this…all this rough wind surrounding her, and the next …where _was_ she? Propping her body up on her elbows, the girl pushed her glasses (which were miraculously unharmed) back up her nose and stared slack-jawed at her surroundings.

She was in some type of…forest? All around her were plants, and it was dotted every now and then by small, colorful wild flowers. The trees were tall, and moss grew on almost every rock.

How did she end up _here_? Just a second ago she'd been walking back home, hadn't she? How did she go from _a sidewalk _to the _woods_, without driving anywhere? She'd walked back home at least a thousand times with no problem, and then suddenly this happens? Was she going insane?

Well, she wouldn't find out if she was lying down, she reasoned.

Sitting up all the way, the girl brushed herself off and stood up quickly. Leaning down, she grabbed her book bag and quickly put one arm through a strap, while trying to ignore her rumbling stomach. Finally, she took in a deep, calming breath and spoke up.

"H-Hello? Is—Can anyone hear me? Hello?"

Her answer was silence.

There was just…nothing.

"That's weird…" Marcie muttered to herself, unnerved by everything so far.

She reached into her pocket then and took out her cell phone, determined to find something that would help her, like a map. However, there was one problem she encountered almost immediately.

She had no service.

Sighing in frustration, Marcie shoved her phone back into her jacket pocket. She looked around for a second, before she locked her sights on what seemed like a trail. Maybe it would lead to a Ranger's station, or at least someone who had phone service.

"I got lost and need to use your phone, sir," she started to practice what she'd say when she came across a Ranger, figuring it was a way to keep her mind out of this craziness. "I was on my way back from school, but I somehow ended up here, and I need to call my brother."

She nodded to herself, liking how'd she'd handle the situation. "Could be worse though; it's kinda like camping," she mused, admiring the red and orange fall hues, before squinting her eyes to look in the distance. She was just able make out something with shingles, like a rooftop.

"A…house?" she breathed, relief evident in her tone. That meant she was somewhere in the city, in Kearney, right?

"Either way," she muttered, "If it's out of this park, I'll be good."

Trudging along, the teenager tried to keep herself entertained by continuing one-sided conversations on how she'd greet the Rangers. She made good time, but despite that, it still took her a good twenty minutes to get to where the house was. But what puzzled her was that this looked like an entire _town_.

With _people_.

Who were all dressed _weird_.

"What the…!" Marcie cried out, lunging for safety as she was almost run over by…"Is that a_ horse_?!"

She looked around wildly then, confusion taking hold as she couldn't see any cars, or stop signs, or gray asphalt. There were shops with names she didn't understand, like cobbler, and blacksmith, and what the heck was an apothecary store? And was that a…was that _another_ horse?

Feeling nauseous and dizzy all of a sudden, Marcie wrapped her arms tightly around her middle. She stumbled through the uneven ground of the cobblestone streets, barely managing not to bump into someone. Everyone brushed passed quickly, too fast to ask anything. After dodging a group of running kids, she saw a woman standing outside of what looked like a store, not too far ahead. Was this some sort of old-time outdoor mall then?

"Ma'am?" She asked, slightly out of breath as she reached the woman. She looked middle-aged, her face plain, and she was a few inches taller than Marcie.

"…yes?" The woman made a point to answer, hesitantly, as her eyes raked over the girl.

The teen fidgeted under her gaze, her eyes falling to the ground in a hopefully less embarrassed way. Suddenly everything she'd practiced fell through, and she swallowed hard. "Uh…do you have a phone I could borrow? Mine's not getting any reception."

"A phone." The woman repeated, almost in a deadpan voice.

Marcie scuffed her shoe against one of the stones that made up the street, nodding slightly. "Yeah, you know, like a cell phone? Or like, an office phone? I'll only be a sec, I promise."

"Alright, who put you up to this?" The woman asked, and the teen looked up in confusion, just to see the woman's narrowed eyes at her. "What kind of dare is that? To dress up like you are, and poke fun at a poor woman trying to make a living?"

"But I'm not—"

"Go on now, shoo, before I call my husband out and he gives you the business." When the teen didn't move, still stuck in a disoriented state, the woman pushed her away. "Shoo!"

Marcie stumbled a few steps, before looking back in confusion. The woman had already moved on, talking to someone else, who had a basket slung over their arm. The girl, bewildered at the turn of events, straightened her shoulders, before looking up.

In the not too far distance, she could see a spire. She ignored the odd looks she was given when she declared, a bit too loudly in relief, "A skyscraper!"

More determined now, Marcie headed towards the tall building. It took her a good half hour, and she received more weird looks than she should have, but she didn't mind it. After all, she reasoned this place was probably some type of business, where they'd be normal and explain to her that this was some type of elaborate game of dress-up.

"Finally," she breathed, as she made it to a large archway. Directly ahead was a large gate, but as her eyes travelled along it, she could see people dressed in uniform right above it.

"Security," she muttered, as she looked down at herself. She had a sloppily sown hole in her jeans, a thoroughly worn jacket, dirty sneakers, and grimaced.

"There ain't no way they'll lemme in like this," she sighed, shaking her head. She had to get to a phone, but doubted the probability of her entering to do so. However, something caught the corner of her eye, and she perked up. "But if I follow the leader..."

A group of people were entering through without any problem, most of them carrying things. Thinking quickly, she took her book-bag off of her shoulders, and into her hands. She grunted at the shifting of weight, before keeping low enough to just duck behind the crowd.

She was in the gates within a minute, and inside the business not a second later. While the people kept talking to each other, focusing on their task at hand, Marcie looked around, before turning a sharp corner.

"Well, that was easy," she grinned to herself, struggling with the stuck and half-open zipper of her back pack, before giving up and slinging it back onto her shoulders. "Now to find someone normal with a phone."

Always cautious, Marcie tried not to make any more noise than she may have already done. The last thing she needed was for security to find her trail. Her Converse tapped softly on the floor, and even her breathing had lowered considerably. She was better safe than sorry.

Besides, she didn't have time to fool around here. She had to find someone, or find a phone, whichever was first, and then make sure—

"Oomph!" Marcie made an instinctive noise again at being knocked clean off her feet.

"Sorry!" A hurried voice quickly apologized. "I'm so sorry! I was going so fast, and I wasn't paying any attention to where I was—oh! I'm sorry, I should have asked this before—you're not hurt, are you?"

Marcie looked up, squinting without her glasses, and unable to recognize the blurry form in front of her. From the voice, the teen could tell that this was a woman. Other than that, everything was a haze.

"No ma'am, I'm fine," she mumbled quickly, getting to knees.

She started to search for her glasses, which she assumed had fallen off when she fell, while her heart pounded in her ears. She tried very hard to ignore the person near her. She pushed aside papers—were they hers?—but it was to no avail.

"What are you looking for?" The voice asked again, this time with a curious tone behind it instead of a hurried one.

"My glasses," Marcie sighed, "I'm practically blind without 'em."

"Oh! I'll help you find them!" Before the girl even had a chance to respond, the voice again cried out, "Here they are!" and her glasses were suddenly thrust in front of her.

Hesitantly, the girl reached out and took back her lenses. "Thank you, ma'am."

"It's the least I can do…ah…" The person trailed off for a moment, before looking down at the papers she'd gathered and acquiring a name. "Marcie, is it?"

"Yes ma'am, it is," the teen acknowledged, before quickly grabbing her much lighter school bag.

Surprised, her eyes flickered towards it, and she realized her papers text books had slid out. She sighed. Her day was going from bad to worse really fast.

"Here, these are yours," something was thrust towards Marcie again, something coming from the woman.

Realizing that she'd have to look up to accept whatever it is that was hers from the woman, the girl prepared herself mentally. Brushing hair out of her eyes, Marcie let her eyes connect with the woman's as she grabbed her school things.

The result was mind blowing.

Both people in the hallway took an automatic step backwards, their eyes startled.

The woman standing in front of Marcie looked like she could be related. A younger woman, she had the same bright red hair that Marcie possessed, and similar large blue eyes. Those two shared features, were simply…uncanny.

Blushing slightly at the thought, Marcie lowered her gaze. All her papers and her heavy textbooks were shoved back into her bag without much care. Then she stared at her worn-down shoes and waited for the woman to say something.

"Mel-Melody?"

The teenager standing in front of the woman looked up a moment, her brows pulling together in confusion. "No, ma'am; I'm Marcie."

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><p><strong>Please don't forget to review!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2: Crazy

**Hello my faithful reviewers! As promised, this chapter is a bit more fast paced, and not as dry as the first. It's gone through many, many, many, edits, but its finally ready to be out there now! Please please please don't forget to review!**

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><p>"Oh! O-Of course!" Ariel stumbled over her words, and managed, with some difficulty, to control herself.<p>

"I was just…just…" she cleared her throat, trying to take firm control over her nerves. "I'm sorry, but have…have we met before?"

The struggle she endured to keep her voice from rising about four octaves was almost unmanageable. The girl…there was something there that just didn't sit well. The resemblance to her dark-haired daughter was more than startling; there was something here that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"No ma'am, I don't think we've ever met," Marcie shook her head, frowning in consternation, because she would have known if she'd met someone who looked like this. "Actually…I don't even think I've ever _been _here before. Do you know what this place is?"

"N-No…this is…you're at…" Ariel winced tightly at a sudden migraine overcoming her mind. Her pulse quickened, and heart pounded hard.

"Ma'am?" Marcie's asked uneasily, worrying for her own safety. "Look, I'm just gonna go, 'k?"

Taking a step back slowly, the teen concluded the woman in front of her _must_ be insane. How else could she explain the way the woman had acted completely normal, and then went all cuckoo?

"No…wait!" Ariel cried out, grabbing the girl. In the still rational part of her mind, she realized that the teen had to go get help.

Instead of blurting this out, however, her mouth suddenly dried of any words. Her blue eyes connected with those of the teenager's. Her senses became astonishingly acute, zoning in on a light brown birthmark decorating the tip of Marcie's nose. It suddenly became too hard to breath.

And then it happened.

It seemed like the world collapsed under Ariel's feet. It felt like all the pressure on her skull was suddenly lifted off, and her eyes were opening for the first time. It was like everything disappeared around her, and all the woman could see was an old memory unfolding before her very eyes.

A memory she'd tried to repress since…since…

"Dear Neptune," she swore softly, her one free hand going to cover her mouth.

She stared, not able to release her just yet. Her blue eyes stared at her, tracing every part of the teen. Yet, in her shock, she failed to notice the way the girl's lips opened with words of alarm.

_Every mother knows her child. _

What?

_Every mother knows her child._

Her entire body shaking now, Ariel felt her legs give out from under her, though she hardly registered the pain from doing so. Tears suddenly clouded her vision, and in a fluid moment she grabbed the girl and pressed her close to her heart.

_Every mother knows her child. _

"_Let-me-go_!" Marcie screamed, so loud that she could have shattered glass.

Grabbing the woman's wrist with all the strength she possessed, Marcie yanked it upwards until she heard a crack. The woman shrieked, and reached out with her other hand. Thinking fast, Marcie delivered a stinging kick to the woman's ribs.

The redheaded woman doubled over, gasping in pain. The sound of heavy footsteps could be heard coming towards them from a distance. Heart pounding, the girl looked around, right to left, left to right, before determining the only way she could get out of here was to turn around and run in the direction she'd come.

So she did.

Marcie had run before. She'd run in heart stopping fear, she'd run in determination, and she'd run just to run. Never before though, in her short fourteen years, had she run for her life. She was terrified, desperate, and everything in between.

She came to a hallway intersection, where there were three potential places that one could go. Adrenaline pounding, she allowed for her instincts to take over as she ran straight. But zooming ahead, the girl suddenly felt an ache somewhere deep in her stomach.

None of this seemed right.

She didn't recognize any of the expensive wallpaper, the portraits that were five times her size, the marble floors, the chandeliers, the flowers, the peopl_e_…

Yes, _people_. Women and men, some carrying things, others gossiping, none of them dressed up in _business_ clothes...all of them shot strange looks towards the teen. Many called out to her, but their words were lost in the trail of air that she left behind.

Unsatisfied that she'd gone far enough, Marcie didn't decline in her running. Although her body complained for her to no longer move, she refused. She couldn't stop, not until she could get some help from normal people. Maybe if she started to speed up a bit more…

"Whoa! What do we have here?"

A booming voice suddenly sounded in front of Marcie. The girl frowned, slowing down when she saw two big feet in her way. She decided to stop in her tracks, and slowly craned her head back until she'd saw a man who was twice her size in muscles alone.

The growling from her stomach caused the girl to jerk out of her open mouthed state. Fear spurned her body into action, and she tried to start running again. Pathetically, she didn't even make it two steps before the man reached out an arm and firmly held her in place.

"Where are you headed off too?" The man asked, in a no-nonsense voice.

Marcie, not processing his question, tried to fight her way out of this. "Leave me alone! I hurt that redhead lady, and I can hurt you too!"

The large man seemed to study her for a moment. Something passed across his face, like recognition, only to be clouded over by confusion. Finally, he gave her an appraising look.

"_You_ were the one who hurt the redheaded woman?"

The teenager swiped at his nose, missing by barely an inch. She tried a second time, but he quickly leaned far away from her dangerous fists. He decided that her violent display was most likely her answer.

"Well, you're in a heap of trouble now. I wouldn't suggest struggling." The man said nonchalantly, noticing the girl's vain attempts to break free.

"Leave me alone or I'll scream!" Marcie retorted, still trying to fight back against the behemoth. "I can kick your butt too! I'm not afraid to beat you up!"

"Whatever you say, girl." The man shrugged, seemingly unconvinced by the girl's antics. "Now c'mon; someone is going to want to speak to you."

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><p>"Eric, you're being—<em>ow<em>!"

Ariel broke off suddenly, wincing in pain as she felt the doctor pinch at her swollen wrist. She was currently seated in one of the comfortable chairs the study had to offer. Her left hand was holding an ice pack against her smarting ribs, while her right was being carefully wrapped up.

"I'm _being_ reasonable." Eric answered, standing by his wife with a firm expression.

The woman gave a sigh, blowing her bangs away from her face. She slumped deeper into the circular backing of the chair, her features easily twisting in frustration. She wasn't in the mood argue over how "rational" her husband was.

"Carrying me all the way here is hardly reasonable. I could have walked." Ariel snorted, wincing again and shooting the doctor a dirty look.

Dr. Bergh chuckled lightly, but refrained from saying a thing to the woman. It was obvious that the queen was not exactly in a happy place right now. Eric, however, had no qualms about challenging his wife's assertions.

"You had just gotten kicked." He replied, as a way to defend himself from his her implied accusation.

"I've _had_ worse."

"_And_ you had just gotten your wrist broken."

Ariel gave an indignant gasp. "It's only a bad sprain!"

"Caused by someone else _purposely_." Eric finished up, his eyes unsettled and his mouth frowning in worry. He didn't like anyone hurting his Ariel, most especially someone who was coward enough to run away. "What were you even doing there? I thought you said you were going to go for a swim?"

"I _was_," Ariel started, grimacing in pain, "But I got sidetracked and ended up in the nursery. Then I realized you were probably still stuck in here with that trade report, and I felt bad, so I was on my way back."

Eric raised a brow. "Why were you in the nursery?"

"I was hoping for some inspiration on what to get the new baby." Ariel said obvious frustration.

"Still no luck?" Eric sympathized, and had she been capable of it at the moment, he was sure his wife would have thrown her arms up in defeat.

"None! I have no idea what Alana would want!" She said, with a moan of contempt. "This is her third as it is; what do people even want when it's their _third_ baby?"

"You're asking _me_ that question? The only child? Who's _raising_ an only child?"

"Point taken," Ariel answered sourly, still upset about the whole issue. Then, she perked up. "But I did find the old baby books; did you know I actually put little baby handprints _in_ them?"

"I remember," Eric grinned, "You came down here asking for ink, and Melody's finger's were stained for a week."

Ariel smiled at the memory. "If she wouldn't have squirmed so much, I would've been able to wash off her hand right after."

"She was, what, a month old?"

"Month and a half, according to what I wrote in underneath." Ariel laughed lightly, and then cut it short with a groan at the pain in her ribs.

Eric took notice, and his good mood vanished. A frown settled onto his features. "I still don't understand why you're not more upset about the fact that someone hurt you like this."

"Oh, she was just upset." Ariel answered back airily, defending the very person who was giving her pain at the moment.

"She? It was a woman?" Eric wondered aloud, his black brows furrowing in confusion. Ariel was no ditzy little girl; if anyone wanted to harm her, they better be twice as large, because she _would_ put up a good fight.

"Sort of." Ariel answered, carefully balancing the icepack on the armrest when she felt a chill start to settle in her.

"How can it 'sort of' be a woman?" Eric inquired, his eyes trailing off to the splint the doctor was setting around Ariel's wrist.

"Because our daughter's only a teenager, Eric." Ariel tried to clear up, wincing yet again as Dr. Bergh managed to prod her swollen wrist slightly.

"_Our __daughter_? Are you trying to say that…Melody did this?" Confusion now alighted every part of Eric.

"Melody?" Ariel questioned with the same confused tone. She looked up at her husband as though he was crazy. "Where in the _world_ did you get the idea that Melody could do something like this?"

"But you just said—!"

"I _meant_," Ariel cut him off effectively, exasperation in her tone, "our daughter, _Harmony_."

"Alright, you've lost me." Eric sighed in frustration, feeling like this was going nowhere. "Who's Harmony?"

Ariel gave him a look that held more meaning then her words could ever describe. Realization slowly started to creep into his mind, pushing away the fog until he was suddenly pressing a hand to his forehead. Slowly, his features turned from outright clueless to an expression of pain.

Oh.

_That _daughter.

Eric shut his eyes, letting a tightly controlled breath of air be released from his lips. "Right. Her."

"It seems more like she was a dream, doesn't it?" Ariel asked softly, her eyes turning down to stare at the carpet. Her throat was starting to tighten.

Eric shook his head, muttering, "More like a nightmare that's been dragged out for years."

Ariel knew what he meant. They had both watched a part of their world — the future plans they had made, the dreams they'd whispered — crumple away in one moment. It was hard not to feel a sense of bone-crushing pain at the idea that their family was always missing one.

And then, suddenly, she jerked out of it.

"Eric, she's back." Ariel whispered, looking upwards with a fiercely determined expression. "She's not our baby anymore, but she's _back_. She's here, with us, just like how it was before. "

Tears stung at Ariel's eyes, tears she was sure came from an overwhelming sense of happiness. She expected Eric to jump ten feet in the air and whoop in joy. After all, this was what they had always hoped, always wanted. All she got in return, however, was her husband wearily sighing.

"Darling, please." Eric said softly, capturing his wife's good hand in his. "I thought we promised to stop doing this to ourselves years ago."

Ariel sighed softly, her gaze falling down to her lap. "But she _is_ back. She _is_ here. Harmony is _home_."

The way she said that sentence, so easily incorporating that name made Eric flinch in surprise. They never used her name whenever the rare subject of their once other daughter was brought up. It just allowed for anguish to flow freely, something neither of them wanted.

Or at least, they hadn't wanted too until now. It would seem like Ariel, for some reason, had finally cracked. She was speaking about things that were impossible. Oddly, it did not worry him because knew that he'd find the person who had hurt her, and caused this. Then he would proceed to break every bone in their body.

"Dr. Bergh, my wife's delusional." Eric said finally aloud, dispelling the heavy air that had suddenly settled in the room. The doctor warily turned an eye towards his king, letting his eyebrows rise up.

"I am _not_ delusional!" Ariel gasped in an affronted manner, trying to jump to her feet. She was pressed back into her seat by her husband, who gave her an imploring look.

"_And_ she's trying to injure herself further." Eric continued on to the doctor, ignoring his wife's protest once again. "Can we sedate her?"

It was clear by his light tone that he wasn't taking this option very seriously. In fact, it seemed like he was downright teasing, as though trying to forcibly lighten the atmosphere. Ariel, however, was a different story.

"Frederic Stephen Markus Benson II, if you even _try_ to sedate me, I'll put you in a coma for the next twenty years! Don't think I won't!" Ariel shrieked, trying to stand again, but a firm hand from her husband kept her down.

He gave a short laugh, but immediately sobered upon seeing Ariel's glowering, almost murderous expression. Perhaps she was serious after all. He held up his hands in surrender.

"It was only a suggestion for your own benefit, no need to resort to full names and threats." Eric tried extremely hard to keep the smile off of his face as he saw his wife shoot him an annoyed look.

"I'll show _you_ a suggestion for my own benefit." Ariel muttered, trying again to stand up, but this time, it was the doctor that kept her sitting.

"Your majesty, please. If you keep moving you're going to end up actually fracturing your wrist." Dr. Bergh firmly reminded, trying to finish up the wrapping on Ariel's wrist.

Although it was just a sprain, it was still bad enough that her hand needed to be immobilized with a light wrapping for a few days. Unfortunately, with her inability to sit still, something that should have taken five minutes had taken the better part of fifteen. Ariel gave a loud, overdramatic sigh, her blue eyes turning towards the doctor with an imploring look.

"How long do I have to wear it _this_ time?" She wondered, slumping slightly in her chair.

"A good two weeks. And then, your highness, because your ribs are still pretty bruised, you'll have to take it easy." Dr. Bergh answered, and Ariel gave another sigh in response.

"Two weeks." She repeated to herself, frowning slightly. "There go _my_ plans." Ariel mumbled unhappily under her breath, wincing again as her swollen wrist was prodded.

"It'll fly by darling." Eric reminded gently, though he only received another glare from his wife for his words. He gave a shorter laugh, coming up beside her again to place a well-deserved kiss against her cheek.

"And I promise not to tease you…much." A mischievous twinkle filled Eric's ice blue eyes, and even a sullen Ariel had to smile despite herself.

"You're not helping." She grumbled, but with a smile so her husband knew that she was only joking.

Eric tugged a lock of her hair playfully, grinning her favorite dimpled smile. "I'm making you smile. _That's_ considered helping in my—"

The playful grin disappeared from Eric's features entirely as a loud knock sounded on the door to the study. He swiveled around, perplexed written all across his features. Shooting a confused look back towards his wife, who gave a shrug in return, Eric crossed the room and opened the door.

"Sorry to interrupt you, sir, but I thought you might like to talk to the person who hurt the Queen."

The large man's voice deadpanned those words in a serious tone. Marcie continued to squirm, despite her hands having been tied behind her back with rope. This was _not_ how she had planned to spend her after-school time.

"You caught them?" The girl looked upwards in alarm at the sound of another man's voice, but she found that from the angle she was being yanked along at, it was nearly impossible to see his face.

"Yes, sir. It wasn't too difficult," the giant answered, tightening his grip around her.

"Alright, have some of your men look after him for now," the second man started, his voice firm. "I'll deal with him in an hour."

"Actually," here the sasquatch with the grip on her hesitated, enough for the teenager to take notice, "I think it would be best if you handled this right now."

"Now?" The other man seemed visibly surprised at the notion. "She's inside, though. I don't want her to get hurt…again."

"I don't think that will be an issue," here the man who rivaled big-foot sent a sideways glance in the girl's direction.

"And you're sure I can't deal with this later?" The other man seemed hesitant now, worried even.

"Positive, sir." The large man turned to look at the other person, his grip tightening on the back of the teen's shirt. "Trust me. You'll be glad you did this."

The second man sighed. "Alright, fine. Bring them in."

Marcie was dragged into the room, and then thrown not-so-gently on a couch. Her school bag was tossed onto the ground near her feet, thankfully not spilling out again. She turned to shoot a glare towards the giant, when she noticed something else.

This room looked…big.

The expensive kind of big.

Bookshelves holding volumes thicker than her head stood against the far wall, covering it from floor, to very high ceiling. Couches and chairs were spread sporadically around the large room, and each one looked inviting. A window took up another wall, with a fair amount of natural light spilling into the room. There was even a large desk, with papers and a globe.

She was so engrossed in looking around this room that Marcie didn't realize that there was more than one person staring right at _her_.

Eric kept staring at the teen with wide eyes. Wearing a gray shirt, blue trousers, and a pair of black-and-white shoes, he would have kept the assumption that this was a young man, had it not been for the faded pink, long sleeved, zippered...garment. Her bright red hair, identical to that of Ariel's, was cut short, coming up only to her collarbone. Her blue eyes were almost hidden away behind thick glasses.

Eric shook his head. This was impossible. He was simply letting his wife get inside his mind with all her crazy talk. This girl just must have an eerie alikeness to his daughter. There were people like that, right? There _had_ to be.

"What's your name?" He finally wondered aloud, his voice sounding hoarse. His eyes did not leave the teenager's face.

Marcie's head shot up like a bullet, her ice-blue eyes connecting with his. She saw how he shuddered lightly, taking an automatic step back. The girl frowned. Was she truly that frightening to someone older than her?

Most likely in his mid-twenties, he looked strong, but not like the buff man that had dragged her here. He had dark hair, and kind looking light blue eyes that were similar to the coloring of the irises she owned. Although, at the moment, he seemed rather upset.

"If I tell you, will you let me go?" Marcie bargained, almost hopeful.

"Don't be disrespectful, girl." The buff man that had dragged her here growled, jerking her shoulder to keep her in line.

Marcie looked up at him, glaring once again, before staring at the expensive marble flooring of this room. Well, if she was going to be hurt for speaking, then she wasn't going to speak at all.

"Captain, really. That's hardly necessar-ar-ar-_ouch_!" A woman's voice, a familiar woman's voice, cried out.

Marcie's head shot in the direction of it, and she realized with a start that the woman was the crazy lady from earlier. There was an older man standing to the right of her, trying to make her stay still, as he was doing something to her wrist. The man wore stethoscope, so she instantly labeled him as a doctor, even though he was missing the white coat.

"Sorry, your majesty." The Captain said ruefully, acknowledging that he'd been called out. "Go on girl, tell them your name."

In response to what 'Captain' told her to do, Marcie shook her head fiercely and. She could hear the man grinding his teeth together. The teenager gave a soft gulp in fear.

Yes, it was best if she kept her mouth shut.

"You're not going to speak at all?" The dark-haired man asked in confusion. Marcie shook her head again. "Why not?"

She stayed silent, casting her eyes downwards so that she wouldn't have to have the temptation of speaking. Even if she could, how would she say that she was afraid of what would happen to her? Or that she needed a phone? Obviously these people trusted him, a lot more than they trusted her at the moment.

"Girl, he asked you a question." The 'Captain' growled again, but this time, Marcie flinched and was able to avoid him jerking her shoulder once more. She was starting to catch on.

"I see." Crazy Lady's sudden voice made every head in the room swivel towards her, but she only locked eyes with Marcie. "You're not speaking because you're afraid the Captain is going to hurt you."

Marcie bit back her tongue, which, if let loose, would have said '_the Captain isn't __going__ to hurt me; he __will__ hurt me'_. Instead though, the girl gave a careful nod, making sure that she did not keep complete eye contact with Crazy Lady. She still remembered the last time she did that with this woman.

"If he promises not to, will you speak up again?" Crazy Lady asked, her voice kind and caring. The girl gave a hesitant nod.

"Captain Raleigh," Crazy Lady started, in a slow, understanding voice "Can you promise that you won't hurt the girl?" Behind her, Marcie could practically hear the Captain stiffen, before he gave a disparaging sighed.

"I promise, your majesty." He mumbled faintly, as though he was a child saying an apology.

"Good." The dark haired man said. "Now that that's settled, can you please tell us what your name is?"

"How about this? I'll tell you my name, but first, you gotta untie me." Managing, with some struggle, the girl wiggled around to show her tightly bound wrists to these people.

"You tied her up, Captain?" The dark-haired man questioned, raising a black brow.

"Standard protocol, your majesty." The Captain responded, though his voice edged on a smug tone. "And she's a feisty one; tried to take a few swipes before I tied her down."

"So she's violent." Eric mused, standing by his wife, who gave him an annoyed look.

Marcie shot him her own annoyed look. "I am _not_ violent."

"You broke my wife's wrist." The dark haired man reminded, placing a protective hand on the Crazy Lady's shoulder.

Marcie blanched. So he was married to Crazy Lady. Granted she didn't look to crazy at the moment, but one could never be sure with these whackos. And she had actually broken the woman's wrist? That didn't bode well for her.

"Eric, it's a _sprain_." Crazy Lady reminded her apparent husband in an exasperated tone.

"Look, I didn't _want_ to hurt her, and I'm sorry I did," The girl's careful voice conceded. 'Eric' turned to her with a skeptical look. The teenager sighed.

"I'm serious. It was…it was like, self defense!" Marcie said, biting her bottom lip in worry. "One minute she was all nice, and the next she was actin' like she's totally _drunk_." Gaining momentum, the girl continued on, oblivious to whatever else was happening.

"And have you _seen_ the news lately? I'm a teenage girl, I've got to be _especially_ careful because you never know if someone is your friend, or if they'll beat the livin' daylights out of you, or—or—!"

A sense of hysteria took over, the stress of the day finally catching up. Her chest started to heave, in and out, and before she knew it her eyes were blinded with tears. She crumpled into a fit of sobs not a moment later.

"I…I just wanna go home. I h-had a rough day…I just wanna g-go _home_!"

Tears fell in rapid succession down her face, but Marcie could do nothing but hang her head. She just wanted to forget all about today. She wanted to go to her house, try to scrounge up something to eat, and then curl up in her cozy bed. Actually, scratch that, she'd do anything _but_ stay here.

"Here," 'Eric' sighed, stepping forward, although with some unease. His arm was outstretched with a square cloth, a handkerchief. Marcie looked at him as though he'd grown another head.

"M-My hands, remember?"

Eric blinked, as though suddenly remembering that tiny detail. He nodded, although his mouth was set in a frown. "Right, sorry."

"Captain, can you please untie her? This has gone far enough." At Crazy Lady's words, Marcie looked up, surprised that the woman was sticking up for her. Maybe there was some good in her insanity after all.

"_What_?!" Two of the men in the room spluttered, breaking the girl out of her musings.

"Ma'am, I have to protest! That is _not_ a good idea!" The 'Captain' started, hesitancy deeply rooted in his voice.

"He's right," 'Eric' continued, his tone firm in the belief. "What if she gets the idea to attack you again? After all, she _is_ violent."

"I'm n-not violent!" The teenage protested through her hiccups, a fresh wave of tears springing to her eyes.

Ariel gave the girl an empathetic look. "She's right. _I_ was the one who grabbed her. She was just trying to defend herself; no harm done."

"Right. Except, she broke your wrist," Eric said flatly, giving his wife an imploring look. She returned it with an exasperated one of her own.

"Dr. Bergh," she said, turning her head in the man's direction. He looked up at the woman with a raised brows. "Can you please tell my husband that, for the last time, it's a _sprain_?"

"Dr. Bergh," Eric answered the indirect question, rolling his eyes, "can you please tell my wife that she's utterly delusional and I'm not releasing the person who hurt her?"

"I never said to release her," Ariel said quickly, almost hotly. "I just said to unbind her hands."

Eric started to speak, but his wife, realizing this would not be good, cut him off before he started. "Oh, honestly, she's a teenager. Are you two actually saying that a little girl like _that_ can actually be considered a _threat_?"

The man opened his mouth to retort, but found nothing coming out. Frustrated, he snapped his jaw shut, and swiveled around to size up the girl. She was watching the exchange with wide, unblinking eyes, concern marking every part of her features.

He sighed, finally muttering. "Please untie her, Captain."

"But sir, she's—" The man stopped his protest upon seeing the glare levied onto him by the king. With a disgusted grimace, he complied. "Fine."

The pressure on her wrists was suddenly gone. Marcie blinked, surprised it had taken so little to free her. Although "free" was a touchy subject, considering this Captain had grabbed onto the back of her jacket with the force of a python.

She rubbed at her wrists quickly, trying to get the feeling back into them. Then she pulled her too-big sleeve across her nose, ignoring as it fell slightly and revealed enough of her arm to show a meager bracelet.

What she didn't realize, however, was that all eyes in the room were suddenly focused on dull gold charms on her jewelry.

"Where did you get that bracelet, girl?" The 'Captain' asked aloud, his voice accusing.

Immediately, Marcie gasped in indignant shock. Never had someone pointed a finger at her for being a burglar. He didn't even say it outright; it was just obvious from his voice that that's what he was thinking of her.

"I didn't steal anything; I swear!" The teenager said aloud, her voice sounding more terrified than before.

"Likely story." The Captain's words practically blamed her in full force. "I'll wager that you're hiding the real truth."

A feeling between offense and fright took over Marcie, and it was all she could do to keep her head held high. "This is _my_ bracelet. I made it. I've never stolen anything, ever. I'm not a thief."

Pleadingly, she looked over at the other people, Crazy lady and 'Eric', hoping that they might help her out here. She tried to make the innocence show clear on her face. Maybe her sincerity would drive them to believe her.

"No one said you were a thief." Crazy Lady said smoothly. "I'm sure the Captain," here she fixed him with a narrowed-eyed look, "has a _very_ good reason for what he's saying. Don't you, Captain Raleigh?"

"Your majesty," The Captain began hastily, "I've seen her type before. There's another story to those charms on that string she considers a bracelet. Mark my words, I'm sure if you check, you'll find the princess has _very_ similar ones that have suddenly gone 'missing'."

"So what if someone else has a similar charm?" Marcie suddenly questioned, feeling herself growing cornered. "_Lots _of people probably have the same ones that _they_ bought at a store too!"

"Don't be impertinent." The Captain growled, jerking her shoulder again. Marcie gave a soft cry of surprise, before miserably slumping back against the couch.

"Why don't we just clear this up quickly?" Ariel suggested, trying to act as a diplomat. "Apparently, I'm not allowed to move," here the queen shot an annoyed look at the doctor, who chuckled lightly, "so honey, why don't you come over here so I can see your bracelet and make sure it's nothing like our daughter has?"

"Ariel, I don't think—"

"Your highness, I'm not so sure—"

"Gentlemen," Ariel cut off both her husband and the Captain of the Guard with a fierce edge to her voice. "I am a grown woman, perfectly capable of handling my own battles. And since we've already established that the girl isn't violent, I don't believe she'll go on the offensive unless threatened. Right?"

Marcie's head spun as she tried to recover (along with the men) from the woman's sudden prowess of the English language. She nodded dimly. "Um…right?"

"Good." Crazy Lady smiled, but it was sort of sly and directed towards Marcie. "Can you come here, sweetie?"

The teen blinked, wary of her surroundings once more. She knew what Crazy Lady was about. But everyone was on her side. So if she went all crazy again, and the girl had to hurt her to run away, these men might just pounce.

_Then again,_ Marcie thought to herself, _she's stuck up for me a few times, and she hasn't been really acting crazy..._

Making up her mind quickly, she ripped herself away from the man's tight grasp, and stood up. She half expected the monster to hurt her, but nothing happened. She felt both his eyes, and those of Eric, following her shuffling steps, and tried hard to ignore them.

She awkwardly stopped about half a foot away from the woman, swallowing with nerves she didn't know she had. Crazy Lady didn't falter in her gentle smile, although her winces were frequent as the doctor beside her did things to her arm.

"Here," Marcie finally mumbled, pushing back her sleeve to expose her bracelet, and shoved her arm towards the woman.

"Thank you," Crazy Lady said in an automatic response.

Her warm fingers probed Marcie's wrist, gently twisting the bracelet around until she saw the first charm. While she did this, the teenager tried hard not to let a cold sweat break out on her forehead. She didn't like being this near people.

"#1 Sister?" Ariel questioned about the charm, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. The girl gave a pensive shrug.

"It was a birthday present from my brother, back when I was a kid." Marcie tried to say with an even voice, really not liking the way Crazy Lady's blue eyes seemed so far away at that statement.

"I see." The woman said quietly, her voice straining. "What's this one?" She questioned quickly, letting the second charm fall in the palm of her hand.

"I've had that since I was a baby." Marcie said, noticing the way the woman's eyes seemed to light up at the word. "See? It's a heart. That side has a cool design, but if you flip it, the other side has my birthday and some other scratched out stuff."

"A cool design," Ariel muttered to herself, turning her eyes down to focus on the charm. Her heartbeat quickened at just the sight of it. No…it couldn't be… "And if you flip it…your birthday and something scratched out."

"Your majesty, I don't think it's wise to get so riled up, not with your newly bruised ribs…" The third man, the Doctor, forewarned, noticing, just like Marcie, that the redheaded woman was on the tipping point of losing it.

"Ariel?" The Doctor's words pulled Eric out of his hushed conversation with the Captain. Suddenly he was much more alert and reached his wife in half a stride. "Ariel? What's wrong? What's going on?"

"I didn't do anything!" Marcie declared, wide-eyed with panic.

"Eric, one side has a cool design, and the other has her birthday and something scratched out. A cool design and something scratched out!" Ariel, starting to grow hysterical, cupped the charm in her hand.

"I don't know what she's talking about! She's, like, crazy!" The girl stated quickly, her eyes pleading for this man not to blame her.

"She is _not_ crazy," he stated firmly, leveling the teenager with an almost searing look. The girl turned her face away from him, a hot rush of blood coming to her cheeks. Eric looked at the third man. "Doctor?"

"Her wrist is bandaged and her ribs should heal quickly, but…" Doctor Bergh sighed, shaking his head. "I can't explain her emotional state, other than she was looking at the girl's charm, and then…"

He trailed off, his eyes going from the queen, who kept mumbling that same phrase over and over again, to finally resting on the teenager. Eric followed his gaze, and then looked away, unable to see the teen without his stomach doing somersaults. Ariel was still holding onto the charm.

"Let me see that, darling," Eric said gently, finally deciding to lean down and peer at the bracelet. He only wanted to know what was causing his wife so much anxiety, but what he found was quite the opposite.

The charm itself was a gold heart, and although dull, it still retained an air of expense. As Ariel had said, something was scratched out, almost impossible to distinguish. As it stood, he could just barely make out the first letter; it was either a half missing M, or possibly, an R…maybe a K? There was also an engraved date underneath, the numbers cloudy and half rubbed off, but still legible.

"What the…" Suddenly rushed with energy he hadn't had before, Eric turned the heart over. He tried to swallow hard, but found his mouth too dry.

No one seemed to notice Marcie stiffen, biting her lower lip in worry. Concerned that saying anything might upset these people more, she kept quiet. When Eric's hand retracted from her wrist, as though it was on fire, she looked up and found him staring at her.

"After all these years, you kept it," Crazy Lady spoke up again, making the teen break away from Eric's gaze, and look at the woman. "You kept it because one side had a cool design, and the other has your birthday and some scratched out stuff!"

"Lady, for the last time, I don't know what you're talking about!" Her voice rising to a strangled yell, Marcie searched all around the room with her eyes, until she found Eric. "Tell her she's crazy! _Please_, tell her to leave me alone!"

For all her hoping though, Eric was useless at this point. He just stared at her, his mouth opening and closing, but no sound ever coming out. From what Marcie could tell, he had gone just as crazy as that lady.

It was that last thought that spurred the girl into action. She yanked her extended arm away, but she hadn't realized that the woman had grasped onto her charm again, holding onto it for dear life. With Marcie's harsh pull, it broke off the string that served as her bracelet and slipped out of the woman's hand.

With a startled cry, Marcie started to spread her hands out like a mad woman across the carpet. In a panic, sweat mounted on her like a hurricane while she searched through the long fibers. She could feel her heart start to beat in her ears, and dimly, she realized she was speaking.

"…no! Crap, crap, _crap_!" Her voice was cracking as she scrambled around, no longer concerned for her safety, but desperately intent on finding her charm. "No, please, no. I can't lose this! It's all I got!"

"Girl, I think you've caused enough trouble already." There was a deep, unsure voice that reached Marcie's ears at the same time as she was yanked upwards by her shirt.

Twisting around with wild eyes, the girl saw that it was the Captain doing this. Any other time, she would have been shaking her in shoes, so scared that he may hurt her. Now, however, the girl used all of her adrenaline to wrench herself away from his surprisingly loose grip.

"Leave me the _hell_ alone!" Marcie roared, shocking the Captain, and even herself, at this display of anger. She didn't hesitate in turning back around and starting to search through the carpet again, muttering to herself, "I've gotta find it!"

"I don't think this is the right time to go searching for that thing, girl." The Captain returned, his voice hesitant as he flicked his eyes up at the two monarchs.

Without warning, he leaned down and grabbed the girl again. As she was being lifted back onto her feet, Marcie felt her hand press against something cold. She dug her fingers into the carpet and captured what she'd been looking for, clinging onto it like a life preserver.

"Doctor Bergh?" The Captain called out, as though asking for an update on his rulers situations. The physician shook his head, motioning towards a nearly hysterical Ariel, and a very stiff Eric.

"There isn't much I can do!" The man yelled, trying to be heard over his queen's hysterics. "Maybe you should take the girl away!"

"Right!" The Captain answered back loudly. "Come on girl; we're going to—" The man broke off in disdain to see her fiddling with that damn charm in her hands.

It was that charm that had lead to whatever was going on with his monarchs. At the moment, both seemed incapable of doing anything, brought down by a silly little gold thing. The Captain knew these people, had been with them for years now. Something about that thing, whatever it was, was causing their inner strength to crumble.

Suspicion and a hint of anger were in the man's narrowed eyes. He made a swift determination, and started to mutter to himself. "I'll be taking that."

Reaching over, the Captain rudely snatched the thing away from the girl. She gave a shocked cry, but it was no match for the man's large fingers forcing hers apart. He looked at it for a moment, trying to figure out what was so special about the thing, before shrugging and starting to put it in his pocket.

Marcie watched this in horror. "Give it back!" She swatted at the man until he stopped midway to his pocket, annoyance creeping into his eyes. "That's mine!"

"I think," the Captain said coolly, blocking off the girl's hands with ease, "it'd be best if you stopped talking, before you dig yourself into a deeper hole."

"But you don't get it! That's _mine_!" The girl pushed, desperately trying to regain her charm. "_Please_! It's the only thing I still got from my parents!"

Somewhere in the room, there was a soft, hiccoughing laugh. "Sweetie…_we're _your parents."

For the briefest of seconds, Marcie felt like time stood stock still. She swiveled around to where that voice had come from, and her eyes connected with those of Crazy Lady. She knew that there was no way for her to say she hadn't heard those words perfectly.

She blinked, and the world came roaring back to life. Within seconds, anger started to seep into her veins. Yes, there was a fury coming over her, something that had not happened since she was teased in grade school.

"You're crazy." She spat out, with as much venom as she could procure.

"You're _all_ insane, and…and…I'm going home!"

Frustrated tears stung at the girl's eyes. She was so angered, so full of hate towards these people. Turning fast, the girl reared up and kicked the Captain as hard as she possibly could.

The sudden motion startled the man, although it wasn't much of a hit. His mind in a complete whorl, he jerked instinctively and dropped the charm still in his hand. Not missing a beat, Marcie swooped downwards and caught the thing before it fell back into the rug.

With her heart pumping in her ears, she ducked under the Captain's large hands. She shot towards the door like a bullet, her heart pounding faster as she heard footsteps behind her.

White-hot energy _seared_ through the girl. No longer working with her conscious mind, but going on instinct, Marcie closed her hand on the knob…

…and that's when all of the adrenaline inside of the girl suddenly came to a crashing halt.

A person stood right in front of the teen, eyes wide with surprise. They were big blue eyes, the same ones Marcie had seen every morning when she looked in the mirror. The girl's long dark hair shifted slightly as she took a step back, her lily-white hands coming up apologetically.

But the redheaded teen wasn't alarmed with the other girl's hands or hair. Oh no. What caused Marcie to jerk back in surprise was the other girl's _face_. Though she had it twisted in embarrassment and shock, there was something oddly familiar about her features.

Then realization hit her like a ton of bricks: the other girl's face was the same as hers.

Suddenly, the world went very dark.

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><p><strong>REVIEW PLEASE!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3: Books

**Hello once more, lovely followers! The original chapter of this is over 13,000 words, so I was forced to cut it in half, one for now, another for later. I suppose you never realize how much you write until you try to cut it up into chapters, huh? Thank you to all who reviewed last time, it means the world to hear your feedback, and that you are enjoying this story. Hope this new update keeps you happy until the next one!**

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><p>"…<em>is<em> she?"

"Melody, lower your voice. You'll scare her."

The first thing Marcie heard was two voices speaking above her head; one curious, another one deeper and laced with a reprimand.

_I'm not scared_, Marcie thought to herself. Suddenly a wave of pain bounced across the girl's cranium, and she shut her eyes tighter in response.

"…should come to any minute now."

Another voice spoke up, this one distinctly male, possibly the same male voice from a moment before. There was an almost calming aspect to it that would have put Marcie at ease had she not been so bewildered at the moment.

She could smell something being waved under her nose, something sharp and stinging. Her stomach tightened immediately in hunger, as though it expected this to be food. Someone was running rubbing alcohol under her nose. But why?

"She'll be alright though, right?" A nervous woman's voice asked aloud a question, not bothering at all to be quiet about it.

Marcie felt a hot flash of pain rip through her head at that; she made a soft moaning sound in response. She reached up a hand to her forehead, pushing away the side-swept bangs that covered it.

Slowly, the girl opened her eyes, squinting in the process as she didn't have her glasses on. She could see blurry forms around her head, people she assumed, but she could hardly tell who was who in her state.

"What happened?" Marcie mumbled, blinking once or twice before she managed to prop herself up.

"You fainted." A man's voice, the one that had sounded calming before, spoke more towards Marcie's right.

The girl turned her head to the blob that she assumed was the man. Without her glasses, the world seemed to be just one huge mess. She blinked once more in confusion, before frowning.

"I fainted?" The girl tried to clarify, her frown deepening and her squinting becoming harder as a worrisome thought filled her mind. "Did I break my glasses again?"

"No, I have them right here!" A voice, a familiar woman's voice, anxiously rushed to say.

A hand—was it the woman's?—was thrust in front of Marcie's face, and in that hand the girl could see the fuzzy image of her glasses. Warily, the teenager took them from the hand and put the thing back on. After blinking once or twice, she let her eyes flicker towards the blobs she'd seen before.

She nearly jumped out of her skin in shock.

Jumbled memories immediately started playing back in the girl's mind, as though allowing the teen to get up-to-speed with the reality of the situation. Not that the reality of the situation made anything more helpful, mind you. The woman was sitting near her on the couch, while the dark-haired man was standing a few steps away from her.

Marcie's heart started racing in anticipation as she realized that she still did not know where she was, what was going how, how she'd gotten here, what was going to happen to—

"Don't be so anxious." The dark-haired man (Eric was his name, right?) said, his ice blue eyes steady upon Marcie's. He lifted his hands up, as though he was surrendering to the girl. "We're not going to hurt you."

"Famous last words." Marcie retorted, her blue eyes wide as she scrambled to the other end of the couch. "How do I know ya'll aren't gonna do something bad?"

"Ya'll?" A new voice questioned, a voice Marcie could hazily remember hearing as she had started to come too.

There was a girl sitting on the armrest of the couch, her eyes curious, but wary. Dark strands of hair hung loosely around her heart-shaped face, but most was tied back in a ponytail. In retrospect, it was obvious that while the girl seemed to look a bit like the Nebraskan teenager, there were differences in their features, like their hair, her nose, the color of her eyes, and even the shape of her lips. The most obvious of the variances, however, was that the dark-haired girl was beautiful.

Marcie hated her at once.

"Melody, shush." A more familiar voice answered the girl's question, and Marcie now flickered her gaze over to the woman she had deemed Crazy Lady.

Crazy Lady's own gaze fell on Marcie, and the slight annoyance was gone from her face, replaced with a sort of motherly understanding. The teenager turned her eyes away from the woman, distrust flowing through her body like a river.

"Sweetie, no one is going to hurt you. We just want to make sure you're alright, and if you're not, help you." Crazy Lady extended her hand towards the wary teenager, as though she was waiting for her to take it.

"Help _me_?" The teen repeated, scooting further away from the woman's hand.

"Crazy Lady, the last time I saw you, you were cryin' up a storm. And then that guy," Marcie pointed over to the dark-haired 'Eric' man, "was just _standin_' there, all coma-like, and then that Captain guy was coming after me 'cause I kicked him to get my charm back, and then—wait."

Suddenly Marcie was looking left and right, searching. She felt her pockets, but it was a useless endeavor. She even looked on her arm, to see if maybe her bracelet had it, but that was a no go too. Panic started to set into the teen, terrified that—

"If you're looking for your charm, I have it." Crazy Lady said smoothly, outstretching her arm so that Marcie could see her charm laying in the middle of the woman's palm.

Without warning, Marcie scraped the thing out of the woman's hand. She examined it for just a moment, squinting to make sure that it was alright. When she was satisfied that it was, the girl closed a fist over it and shoved her whole hand into her jacket pocket.

"Don't you know your P's and Q's?" The girl asked this time, her nose wrinkled in disgust at the poor manners.

Marcie shrugged. "Nah, but I'm pretty good about dotting my I's."

The dark-haired girl blinked for a moment, confusion sweeping over her features. Then, an outright smile broke out on her face. She bowed her head and tried to smother a giggle, although she did a poor job of it.

"_Anyway_," The teen continued on from before, ignoring the girl's lighthearted laugh at her naiveté. "I think if anyone needs help, it's _you_ guys, _not_ me. I ain't the crazy one here, sayin' stuff I shouldn't be sayin'."

Marcie noticed the couple exchange a look with one another. She wasn't sure what it meant, but it put her unease even higher than before. She had to start thinking about escape plans before it became too late.

"What do you mean?" The dark-haired man—Eric was his name, right?— questioned slowly, his face very inconspicuous on this subject.

"I _mean_," The red-head intoned, "Crazy Lady over here sayin' that thing about you guys being my parents."

There was a slight, awkward pause, with the girl dropping her eyes to stare at the carpet. This was hard, for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, didn't like having to admit, especially to strangers, such intimate details of her life. That was followed by the fact that she got a weird vibe around these people, probably her paranoia, but still.

"You must be making a mistake," That Melanie girl spoke up, her voice firm in her belief. "You probably just heard something wrong."

Marcie's head snapped up quickly, a fire behind the glasses she wore. "Listen, my eyes might not work well, but my ears do, and I _know_ what I heard."

The dark-haired girl snorted in disbelief, her arms crossing over her chest in defiance. "Maybe you hit your head, because there is no way that there was anything about—"

"Melody, hush," Crazy Lady chastised, giving the girl a look before the teen was able to speak any more. Then she turned back to the other teenager in the room, her expression curious. "Why do you think I don't mean what I said?"

Marcie gave a sigh, bringing her knees up to her chest so that she could hug them tightly. "Look, I'm tired and my brain is hurting just thinking about this. Can't I just go home? I already said I was sorry for hurting you."

"What do you mean 'your brain hurts'?" Crazy Lady's brows knit together in a confused sort of worry. "Are you getting a headache?"

"I dunno." Shrugging, the teen brushed off the woman's words nonchalantly. "It'll probably turn into one sooner or later."

"What if that's a head injury?" Crazy Lady anxiously questioned, her eyes starting to gain a fearful quality to them.

Marcie snorted. "It's not."

"But what if it _is_?" The woman pressed, her mouth becoming a hard line.

"It's not a concussion."

"A concussion!" Ariel nearly cried out the words, a cold fist clutching her heart at even the idea. "Are you dizzy, or nauseous, or—Eric, what else is there?!"

"Is there an odd sound in your ears?" Eric tried, his expression adopting the same worry that his wife had.

"Ya'll are starting to make me feel that way." Marcie grumbled, rolling her eyes."Look, I've _had_ concussions before. I know what they feel like. I don't have one."

"Maybe we should send for Doctor Bergh, just in case." Crazy Lady conceded, her voice softer than before, as though she was worried about upsetting the girl further.

"Mother, he was just here and he said she was fine." The Melanie girl's voice came across as bored, almost in a sort of know-it-all way.

"Watch your tone, Mel." Eric spoke up, sending a warning glance in that girl's direction. Then he turned back to the Crazy Lady, sighing as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I think, I mean, maybe if—"

A loud, fierce growl suddenly cut Eric off. Three separate pairs of eyes slowly turned back towards Marcie. For a reason she could not explain, the girl went scarlet and slumped even further on the couch. Her head was only high enough so that her eyes could stare at the far wall.

"Was that _you_?" The other girl questioned, not unkindly, but rather more curiosity based. Marcie felt her face flush again and she refused to even nod as an answer.

"Was that—ah, your stomach?" Crazy Lady's voice sounded like she was repressing a heap of giggles. Well, Marcie thought as she sighed, at least someone found pleasure out of her discomfort. "Alright, when was the last time you ate?"

That particular question came from left field it seemed. It was the kind of thing that she didn't like to answer, not because she was counting calories, but just because she usually didn't have enough calories to _count_.

"Um…lunch?" Marcie tried.

Ariel seemed satisfied enough with the answer, her eyes still dancing in glee and her mouth hinting at a smile. Eric looked rather amused about the whole thing, probably because of the way the girl's face matched her hair. It was only Melody that seemed to note the way Marcie had said her words, as though she'd been forcing them out.

"When did you eat lunch?" Melody asked slowly, ignoring the surprised glances sent by her parents.

And suddenly, though her eyes had long since cast downwards, Marcie knew that _she_ knew. Perhaps she didn't know the whole truth, but she had figured out this little secret. The dark-haired girl was cleverer than Marcie had originally considered.

Well, she knew there was a reason she hated her.

"Day before yesterday." Marcie mumbled, cringing immediately because she expected some outburst to occur.

There was none. There was only silence, this one horrified. She could almost _feel_ the shock. And somehow, it was worse than the loud eruption the teen had expected.

"You haven't eaten in over twenty-four hours?" Eric's voice was the first to break through, and it was pensive. The teenager in question dared not look up to see if his face matched his tone.

Instead, she opted for a shrug.

"It ain't as bad as it sounds, trust me. I'm like, not even hungry." Marcie lied, trying to make herself come off as strong and convincing.

"How can you not be hungry if you haven't eaten? I'd be starving!" A younger voice chirped out this time, the girl's voice, Marcie realized. She'd momentarily forgotten the other girl was here.

"I dunno. I guess after awhile you just get used to—," Marcie broke off here to wince slightly at the soft mumble coming from her stomach. "Get used to it."

"This happens…often?" Crazy Lady inquired dryly, her tone implying that she was doing this for clarification purposes.

Marcie, realizing her mistake, quickly pressed her lips together and turned her head towards the far wall as a sign that the conversation was over. Her guard went back up, and her body stiffened in response. This saved her from trying to find the words to explain how sometimes, paying the electric bill meant more than buying groceries.

"Melody, go to the kitchen and ask Louis if he can make something quickly for the girl." Crazy Lady finally said, after realizing that Marcie was done speaking on the subject. Her voice was tightly controlled.

Two heads snapped upwards at her words, although with very different reactions.

"But Mother, I don't—"

"I'm really not that—"

Both teens stopped mid-sentence to stare at one another, surprised that they had started speaking at the same time. However, after only a moment, Marcie looked away once more.

Melody took this opportunity to complain. "I don't want to go _all_ the way to the kitchen!"

"Mel, its twenty seconds away." This time it was that other man, Eric, who answered. Even not looking at him, Marcie could tell he must be rolling his eyes at the other girl.

"I don't even know what she wants to eat!" The girl—Melanie, was it?—argued with a huff. "Or _who_ she is."

"Her name is Marcie, and she wants…" here Crazy Lady trailed off, and if Marcie had been paying closer attention, she might have noticed the woman frowning. "What _do_ you want to eat?"

Instead the teenager, eyes still on the floor and head turned away, mumbled out a meek response. "I'm not hungry."

That other Melanie girl seemed satisfied with her answer. "See? She's not hungry. You were going to make me go all the way to the kitchen and she's not even—"

"A sandwich, Melody." Crazy Lady cut through, her voice thick with exasperation. "Get her a sandwich."

The girl objected quickly. "She _just_ said she wasn't hungry!"

"I don't care what _she_ just said. I'm telling _you_ to go get her a sandwich." Crazy Lady answered back, her exasperation turning into pure annoyance by this point.

"I don't even know what kind of sandwich she'd want!"

"What kind of sandwich do you want?" Eric asked resignedly, and Marcie shrugged once before shaking her head. She heard him sigh. "Ask Louis to make her a ham sandwich."

"Eric, _meat_?"

Marcie finally lifted her head slightly, just so that she could peek at what was happening. Crazy Lady was making a noise in her throat that sounded a lot like revulsion. Her face was twisted in a grimace, and the same went for the other girl's features. Did they not like meat?

She knew only two people in town that didn't eat meat. Although, she'd seen Jenna Hepburn eating a hamburger last week, so she wasn't so sure about it now. That left only one other person: Terry Mackey.

Terry Mackey brought her vegetarian lunch to school, used a rolling book bag, and drew dogs all over her school books.

Terry Mackey also had no friends.

This Melanie girl and Crazy Lady weren't like Terry Mackey, not eating meat and being weird, were they? They both didn't appear so (Crazy Lady might be crazy, but she didn't seem completely bizarre), but looks could be deceiving.

"Ham has protein." Eric's voice startled Marcie out of her thoughts. She continued to peek at the other people just slightly through a curtain of her short red hair."And if she hasn't eaten in awhile, then her body _needs_ that protein."

Crazy Lady's face twisted up like she wanted to be sick. "But Eric…_meat_?"

"I agree. Meat's_ gross_." That Melanie girl put in her two cents, and from where Marcie was looking, she seemed just as disgusted as Crazy Lady.

"It's still good for your body." Eric shrugged, a slightly amused smile lifting up at the corners of his lips. Then he turned his head, and his blue eyes connected with Marcie's.

The girl gave a silent gasp in surprise, her eyes dropping back down. She didn't want these strangers to think that she'd been spying on their conversation. Even if their conversation was about her, she felt like it was somehow rude.

"Unless, you have any major qualms about eating meat…?" Eric asked, raising a dark eyebrow.

Marcie felt like his words were a slap to the face. She was no Terry Mackey! She ate meat all the time and never had any problems with it! She was a completely normal teenage girl!

"'Course I eat meat." Marcie answered, her voice confident for all of two seconds. Then she returned to a mumble when she realized what she was saying. "I ain't hungry though."

"Alright, you got your details." Eric started, and when Marcie peeked again, she saw that he was addressing the other girl. "Now go ask Louis if he can please make her a ham sandwich."

The Melanie girl gave a heavy sigh, blowing away her dark bangs in what appeared to be annoyance. "But I don't really want—"

"Alright, that's enough of this attitude of yours, young lady." Crazy Lady cut the girl off, her annoyed tone climbing. "Go do as you were told. Now."

Marcie let her eyes lift up for just the briefest of seconds. Crazy Lady's voice was firm. There was no yelling, no cussing, no put downs, not even a traditional argument. The woman didn't even look flustered for crying out loud!

This was absolutely…_weird_.

"Fine." The dark-haired girl spoke exaggeratedly, sighing for what appeared to be dramatic effect.

She pushed herself off of the couch, looking over her shoulder once in slight curiosity, before shrugging it off and going out the door of this room.

As she left, the girl didn't close the door all the way. Marcie couldn't help but stare at it, torn between running away and eating a good meal. She frowned slightly, almost guiltily at these thoughts.

Sometimes, Marcie hated the circumstances life had thrust her in.

"I'm sorry if our daughter seems a bit..."

Eric seemed unable to finish his sentence. This was just the same, because Marcie finally lifted her wide eyes to meet his, a question burning upon her lips.

"She's _your_ kid?" Earning wary nods in return to her question, Marcie felt a sense of unease flit through her. Too concerned for her well-being, she hadn't paid attention to the way the other girl spoke to them. "So that means you guys are like, officially together, right?"

"Married, actually. For fifteen years." Crazy Lady answered, her amused voice confirming the teenager's early detection.

Marcie's eyes widened more at the number. "Jeez. You don't _look_ old enough to be married for that long. Did you marry at thirteen or somethin'?"

"We were a bit older than thirteen." Crazy Lady gave a good natured laugh, and Marcie flushed scarlet again in embarrassment. "But, I'll take it as a compliment. It's always nice to hear you look young."

"I tell you that every day!" Eric's affronted voice rang out.

However, there was a certain playful ring to it, as though he wasn't really being serious. It was almost as though he was just teasing. Seeing Crazy Lady turn her head a fraction of an inch to give him a sly smile confirmed what Marcie thought.

"_Your_ opinion doesn't count, because you tend to be biased, dear." Crazy Lady returned, batting her eyelashes sweetly, although her tone was dry as can be.

Marcie held her breath now. She knew what that sort of look meant. It meant that Crazy Lady had just uttered some fighting words to her husband and was now trying to act all sweet to get out of the inevitable argument. The girl could only hope this 'Eric' man wouldn't be too harsh on the woman; after all, she _was_ crazy.

"Me? Biased? Never!" Eric laughed, taking a step and leaning down to kiss Crazy Lady on the cheek. She swatted him half-heartedly away with a giggle. "It's not my fault I'm married to the most beautiful woman in the world."

"Eric, really." Crazy Lady returned in a chiding voice, although her face had gone as red as her hair at the compliment. Eric just grinned, his dimples showing, and his face shining with a certain look of mischief.

Marcie blinked, looking at both of the people with a sense of astonishment. They were just having fun at each other's expense. But they were doing it in a way completely foreign to her.

"So…ya'll aren't gonna fight?" Marcie wondered incredulously, her eyes shifting back and forth between the two people. Both of whom who looked, oddly enough, surprised.

"Fight?" Eric repeated, frowning at the word. "Why would we fight?"

"At home, if someone says your opinion don't matter, it'll usually lead to a blowout fight." Marcie stated, shrugging her shoulders at the entire situation.

Ariel shared a look with her husband. He motioned for her to speak first, because he apparently thought she could do a better job getting more information out of this girl. The only problem with that being at any second, this girl could close up like a clam, as she had done before, and refuse to say a word more on the subject.

Ariel cleared her throat, trying to dispel the nerves building up inside her. "And your…parents, they have these…blowouts a lot?"

Marcie's eyes darkened, her lips thinning out into a single line. Although it was a simple mistake, it was one that the girl hated with all her might. She could keep calm, but only just.

"They are _not_ my parents." Her words were firm, almost with a biting edge to them. Both adults exchanged another look at that, a look that held meaning for them, but was lost upon the teenager.

"What do you mean?" Ariel followed up, hesitant in how she phrased this question.

"It's kind of a personal thing." Marcie sighed, looking past both Ariel and Eric with trouble in her eyes. "I don't like to talk 'bout it."

"That's fair." Eric stepped in, because he could see his wife about ready to press for more answers to the subject. Instead of letting this happen, however, he steered the conversation in a different direction.

"So…the adults you live with," he started slowly, trying to gain Marcie's approval on the terminology. The girl nodded, and he continued. "Do they fight a lot?"

"Oh, sure." Marcie shrugged again, her voice dismissive. "They're always at each other's throat for somethin' stupid."

"What do you mean?" Ariel followed up, her curiosity suddenly piqued. "What do they fight about?"

Marcie opened her mouth, before rationality kicked in and she shut it quickly. She'd already said enough. So maybe she didn't have a perfect life. Lots of people didn't have that either.

"It don't matter." Marcie finally said, trying really hard to sound indifferent to Crazy Lady's question. "I mean, lots of couples fight. If they didn't, then divorce lawyers would be out of a job, ya know?"

"I suppose." Ariel gently agreed, looking up at her husband for the briefest of seconds, before biting down on her lip. "Where was it you said you were from?"

"Amher—I never said where I was from." Marcie said, much more on her guard now. "And I'm not telling you either, so don't bother askin'."

Eric frowned at the girl's sudden mood change. "Why not?"

"Because I was told not to talk to strangers and give them your address, that's why," she retorted with a bit of a bite to her words, stubbornly crossing her arms over her chest.

"But what if we can help you?" He pressed, concern underlying his tone.

"The kind of help _I_ need is to get back home," the teenager answered defiantly. "Ya'll got a phone I can use?"

"A phone?" Confusion alighted Ariel's tone, and she sent a sideways glance to her husband, as though asking him if he knew what that was supposed to be. Judging by his equally perplexed look, he didn't.

"Yeah, like a cell phone, or like, uh, shoot, whatchamacallit…" Marcie shook her head, trying to recall what she'd meant to say in the first place.

Ariel blinked, and found herself questioning slowly, "Whatchamacallit?"

"Now, _there's_ something I haven't heard in awhile." Eric mumbled, surprise in his tone. "Where did you pick up that word?"

"Huh? Whatchamacallit?" Marcie asked, her forehead scrunching up. "I dunno. It's one of those words you sort of just, pick up, ya know?"

"Sure…" Eric trailed, wary of the girl's thought process. "What were you saying before? That you needed something…?"

"Oh, yeah!" The teen nodded quickly, almost eagerly. "I need someone's phone. Mine is," she reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out the cell and looking at the screen, "yep, mine still doesn't have any service. Do you guys have like, a landline—_that's_ what I was gonna say!—that I can use?"

Ariel eyed the device in the teen's hand, just barely curtailing her curious nature. "I can't say that we do. Eric?"

"Not that I've ever heard," he replied, shaking his head. "Maybe we know it by a different name, though. Can you describe it?"

The teen's face clouded over, obviously unhappy. "It's a phone. With like, wires that go inside the walls; like a home phone? Or maybe, you know, a cell phone? Like, mine?" She held up her phone for good measure, hoping for some type of recognition.

The confusion in the adults eyes only seemed to settle deeper in. They didn't know what she was talking about, Marcie realized. In fact, it was as though they'd never even heard of a phone, much less _seen _one.

Suddenly, she could hear her heart thumping in her ears. "Isn't this place like, a business? Inside a skyscraper?"

Ariel seemed taken aback at the statement, her eyebrows furrowing together. "A business? No, you're at the palac—"

"Our home," Eric cut in quickly, shooting his wife an even look. "You're at our home."

Marcie twisted her mouth, unable to hold back her sudden surprise. "A house? This is all a _house_?"

Crazy Lady shared another look with her husband, before nodding slowly. "It's our home."

"But…it's like, a skyscraper! Its got security guards, and like, a million people!"

"It's…a very big home." Eric answered, wary of how he answered the girl's unspoken questions.

Marcie looked around, her eyes trailing across the richly decorated room, before resting her eyes on her shoes. "So, like, if this is a McMansion, I'm in Kearney, right?"

"Kearney?" That was Crazy Lady's voice, and she sounded baffled. Again. For the tenth time.

"The city," Marcie explained, trying to clear up the confusion. "Like, Kearney the _biggest city _in this state? Our state being _Nebraska_?"

"I've never heard of the country of Nebraska." Eric mused, visibly muddled by this new information.

Marcie looked up at him funnily, as though he was making some sort of unfortunate joke. "Did you not just hear me? This is _Nebraska_. It ain't a country, it's a _state_."

"A state of what?" Eric pressed, trying to wrap his mind around all this.

Marcie made a frustrated sound, sighing. "A state _inside _of a _country_!"

"You're in _Elsemaine_, honey." Ariel put in, gently, as she could tell the teenager was obviously becoming irked.

Marcie whirled towards Crazy Lady, looking her in the eye. "Is that near Amherst?"

"I…I'm afraid I don't know." Ariel admitted, grimacing slightly. "Is that where you live? Amherst?"

"Uh-huh." The girl answered, forgetting that her only leverage against these strangers was now gone. "I mean, I know it's a really small town, but it's only like an hour from the city."

"…this is all on land, right? Nothing in the sea?" Ariel asked, just to make sure. It was a long shot, but in theory, it could be worth it.

The look she earned from the teen practically answered her question itself. "Of _course_ it's on land, this is _Nebraska_. The ocean is like, a thousand miles away, in _every_ direction."

"This isn't "Nebraska", though." Eric intervened, trying to be careful with how he reminded the girl. "This is Elsemaine."

"…is that a city? In, like, Kansas or something?" Marcie pushed her glasses further up her nose, chewing on her bottom lip in thought. Had she somehow gotten lost in another state?

Eric shook his head, sighing now. "Elsemaine, where you _currently_ are, is a _country_, mostly comprised mountainous villages and sea cliffs."

For the first time in this entire warped conversation, Marcie sat up straighter, now thoroughly alert. Crazy Lady jumped back slightly from her position near the girl on the couch, and Eric stiffened, his eyes narrowing on the teen. Neither of them trusted her, but for now, the girl had other pressing issues on her mind.

"What do you mean, _country_?" The teenager asked, almost panicked now. "I've never been out of the country—in fact, I've never been out of the _state_! I'll even narrow it down for you, I've never been past _Omaha_!"

"Maybe it's just a misunderstanding," Ariel tried to soothe, hoping to calm the already riled girl. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for all this, right, Eric? _Right_?"

Her voice was pressing, almost demanding for him to agree with her. Eric pushed back his dark hair, sighing once more, before nodding along. "Sure, fine. Actually," an idea started to form in his mind, "why don't you show us where you live? Maybe we can find a way around all this mess."

Marcie took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself before she spoke. Her hungry wince was hardly even noticeable. "O-Okay. How?"

"There's a globe, on the desk." Eric nodded towards the one the teen had noticed when she first entered. "It shouldn't be too hard to pinpoint where it is."

"I dunno…" Marcie started, hesitant to stand. "How do I know ya'll won't try to do somethin' to me if I get up?"

At her words, Eric nearly rolled his eyes. Ariel gave a soft chuckle, shaking her head at the poor girl. Marcie frowned, not at all understanding what they were laughing at.

"Has anyone ever told you not to be so paranoid?" Ariel wondered, smiling slightly at the girl's shrug.

"Curiosity killed the cat. Besides, you could hurt me." Marcie retorted, and upon hearing Crazy Lady's sigh, she swiveled her head around to face the woman.

"Honey, like I said before, no one here will lay a harmful finger on you. I promise." Upon seeing Marcie's hesitance still there, Ariel decided upon a different tactic. "Look, you saw that we're parents. Why would we hurt you when our daughter is going to walk in at any second?"

Marcie opened her mouth for a quick retort, but found that there was nothing there. She quickly shut her mouth, frowning deeper at the woman's words. It made sense, after all. But was Crazy Lady just saying this to trick the girl?

As soon as the thought came to her mind, Marcie shook it off. Now she was thinking absolute nonsense. Perhaps they were right; she was way too skittish for her own good sometimes.

"Alright." She finally said decisively, still as cautious as possible.

Slowly, she released her knees from her tight hold and placed her feet firmly on the ground. Keeping a wary eye on Crazy Lady (who she deemed to be the real threat here), she got up. Once standing, it only took the girl a few steps to get to the globe on the desk.

"This looks expensive," she whistled appreciatively, muttering more to herself than anything as she ran her fingers across the bronze cradle. "The one's we got in school are usually in, like, crappy condition."

"I suppose it was, years ago when my father commissioned it." Eric said lightly, smiling despite himself when he saw the girl look up at him, her huge blue eyes, even behind her glasses, filled with wonder.

She reminded him of his daughter. The thought of it made his smile disappear.

"So this was specially made?" Marcie asked, her eyes lighting up at just the thought. When Eric nodded, his face growing serious, she stopped touching it, afraid she may do something wrong. "Wow. Your dad must've been really rich, huh?"

Eric gave a shrug. "You could say that we were…well off." Clearing his throat, he hurried on to change the subject. "Why don't you start searching for that town of yours, Amherst?"

"Right." Marcie nodded, using gentle fingers to start spinning the globe.

There was something odd happening though. The more she spun it, the more she realized that everything looked…different. The landmasses were incorrectly shaped, and their positions were skewed so much that she couldn't recognize them.

Finally, after about a minute, she made a frustrated noise and quit trying altogether.

"This thing _sucks_." Marcie scowled, her tone fierce and furious while she glared at the globe. From her peripheral vision, she saw both Crazy Lady and Eric's heads turn to glance at her.

"Is something wrong?" Ariel wondered, her voice underlined with a motherly sort of concern.

Marcie's scowl deepened to the point where it looked like she would happily burn the globe and then stomp on its ashes. "This thing is _stupid_. I can't even find North America on it!"

"The best map-makers in the world worked on that globe." Eric said firmly, taking a few steps to the desk. The closer he got, the more the teen stepped back, almost as though she was acting on instinct. "Maybe if you looked harder you would—"

"I already looked!" Marcie flung out her words, crossing her arms over her chest in an irate manner. "Everything on this thing is completely different!"

"Different how?" Eric wondered idly. The girl's expression, so similar to Ariel's when she was angry, made his heart lurch, although he tried hard to appear nonchalant.

"Look!" Marcie stated, pointing a finger to one of the landmasses on the globe. Eric did as he was told from a few steps away, finding nothing out of the ordinary. "What the hell is that supposed to be? Nothing looks like _that_! It's like this is a different _world_ or something!"

"Hm." Eric made a noncommittal sound, before shaking his head and looking back at the girl. "I honestly don't know what to tell you. Maybe you've only seen old versions of the world map?"

Marcie scoffed again, this time directing her glare towards the man. "I may be fourteen, but I _know_ what I'm talkin' about. This thing is a rip-off."

"I didn't mean any offense," Eric said mildly, straining to keep his tone as composed as possible "I'm just thinking that maybe—"

"I can prove it!" Marcie finally announced, up to her wit's end.

Within a second, the girl raced passed the man, sliding on her knees to her school bag. It hadn't moved since the Captain man had thrown it (and her) in a not so gentle manner; she wondered briefly where'd he gone, but found she really couldn't care. She stuck her hand inside for a few seconds, moving around papers and such until her hand finally connected with a thick, large textbook.

"What are you doing?" Ariel wondered, concern ebbing away in her voice. She exchanged a look with her husband, who seemed uneasy at the girl's irrational behavior, and his wife leaning far too close towards her.

"I'm looking for this thing." Marcie answered, flipping quickly through pages and ignoring the hungry growl from her stomach and focusing at the task at hand.

She felt her lips curl upwards triumphantly as she thrust the textbook out to Crazy Lady. "See?" she said, pointing to the illustration. "_This_ is the world map. That globe is totally off!"

Ariel said nothing, taking the textbook from the girl and letting her eyes sweep over it. After only a few seconds, she found herself utterly confused. She looked up at her husband, completely lost.

"Eric?" She asked, and he got her hint immediately, coming over to his wife on the other end of the couch to take the book from her.

"What in the…" He muttered to himself, unable to distinguish what he was looking at. Certainly it was a map, but a map of _where_?

Marcie felt a smug grin start to rise up on her face. "I _told_ you your globe was a rip-off."

Eric, however, only exchanged a befuddled look with his wife, going back to staring at the book. "This doesn't make any sense…"

"You're tellin' me," Marcie muttered from her position on the floor. "First, I'm walkin' back from school, then all this crazy wind comes out of _nowhere_ on the sidewalk, then somehow I end up in the woods, then I gotta walk through this town to find the skyscraper, and _then_ I find out it's not a skyscraper but somebody's _house_."

"Wait," Crazy Lady suddenly said, causing Marcie and Eric to look at her in surprise. "You were just walking, nowhere _near_ a forest, and then you suddenly found yourself in the woods?"

Hesitant and wary all at once, Marcie nodded slightly. "Um…there was a lot of crazy wind too, but yeah. I was on the sidewalk, you know, next to the street, and then suddenly it's like a tornado just hits me out of nowhere, and I end up in the woods."

"That's a…unique, story." Eric said, as he scanned the textbook cover for a minute. He found it to be worn down and written on, but the original title of 'World History' from under all of it was still able to read.

Marcie sighed. "It ain't a story, though. It's _real_. One second I'm in Amherst, just walkin' home from school and minding my own business, and the next I end up _here_."

"Maybe it was all just an elaborate dream," Ariel suggested, trying to make a connection between the girl's words and the reality of the situation, "Perhaps you were just—"

Marcie levied a heavy glare at Crazy Lady, who stopped talking immediately. "I'm _not_ dreamin', okay? Weren't you listening? I was walkin' home, then there was like this—"

"Ariel," Eric interrupted, and Crazy Lady's head jerked in his direction, brows drawing up in surprise. Marcie made a mental note of the woman's name. "What does this look like?"

Ariel extended her hand out to accept the textbook from her husband, wariness written across her features. "…I don't know?"

"Think, I've shown it to you before!" Eric was growing excited now, his voice running fast as he tried to get his point across. "Doesn't it look familiar? At all?"

"Honey, I have no idea what you're talking about," the queen sighed, her eyes flickering up to her husband. "It's just a map of…of…"

"It's the world map." Marcie supplied easily. "I _told_ you your globe was way off."

"That's the thing, it's _not_." Eric mumbled out the side of his mouth, shaking his head as he realized there was only one way to do this. "Come on!"

"Eric!" His wife cried out in shock, as he pulled her too roughly towards to the bookshelf on other side of the room. "What is _wrong_ with you?"

"Just trust me," he replied, as a way of answer. "Help me look for a dark green book; it should be thick and leather bound."

Ariel regarded him for a moment, his head whipping back and forth as he searched for the book, before nodding slightly. "Alright, but you owe me an explanation whenever we find this thing."

"It'll all make sense, I promise," he answered, still busily searching through the bookcase. "If we could just _find_ it…"

"I'm not seeing any dark green leather-bound book on this side." Ariel said, her eyes not finding whatever she'd been looking for.

Eric deflated slightly, saying, "It's not on this side either."

His wife turned her blue eyes up at him, thoughtful. "Maybe it's in the library?"

"Maybe, but I don't see why. The last I checked, it _was_ here." Eric shook his head, clearly frustrated at this turn of events.

Ariel shrugged. "The staff probably moved it when they were cleaning up."

"Um…it's on the top."

The two adults whirled around at the sound of the girl's voice. Her eyes were focused on something upwards, across the room on the bookshelf. Eric turned back around, and seeing that the book was sitting on top of the giant shelf, reached up to grab it.

Ariel, meanwhile, looked at the girl inquisitively. "How did you know that?"

"I'm good at noticing little things," the teen shrugged, her gaze falling down to her worn down Converse as she leaned to rest her back on the couch from her still sitting position on the floor. She'd just never gotten up after giving Crazy Lady her textbook. "That's why my brother stopped playing I Spy with me, back in the day; I always picked the hardest stuff."

"You mentioned you had a…brother." Ariel said carefully, knowing full well how reluctant the girl could be when it came to talking about her personal history. "Is he younger than you?"

"I _wish_," Marcie gave a self-depreciating laugh. "He's four years older. And he's dating my best friend's older sister; it's kinda weird."

Her interest seriously piqued, Ariel pressed for more information. "Who's your best friend?"

"Why do you care? It's not like you'll know him." Slightly suspicious, the girl finally gathered enough courage to look up at the woman, her eyes unwavering.

Ariel swallowed back a lump in her throat, pressing the open textbook (which she hadn't realized she was still holding) close to her chest. "It just…I'm…"

Her thoughts had a hard time staying on track, as her heart beat fast in her chest. The girl tilted her head to the side, her brows drawing together. Ariel pushed back the hot tears that threatened to fill up her eyes; it took everything in her not to grab the girl tight and make sure this wasn't a dream.

"I _knew _it was in here!" Eric's voice cut through the moment, his finger pressing against a page in the thick book. He thrust the thing out to his wife, stating, "_Now_ tell me if this looks familiar."

Turning away from the girl, Ariel calmly looked at the other book from her husband, trying to keep a dignified air. That went out the window as soon as she looked at the illustration. "What the…?"

Her eyes went colossal. She put the textbook next to the book her husband was holding, gasping. Her hands shook slightly, and her head went back and forth between the two illustrations.

"Eric," she started slowly, carefully. "Is that…?"

Without a word, her husband shut the book on his finger, to mark the page. He turned it slightly, so that she could read the cover. Although she already had a sinking suspicion, Ariel still swallowed hard when she realized what the book was.

"So then..?"

Still silent, Eric opened the book back up, taking a few strides across the room, until he was a few feet from the girl. He extended the novel towards her. "This looks more familiar, doesn't it?"

Marcie was so stiff that a board would have had competition. She reached out for the book slowly, keeping her eyes set on the man for any sudden movements. When it was firmly in her grasp, she pulled it close to her, using her knees to prop it up like a table.

After only a second of looking at it, her face brightened. "Yeah! This is definitely the right thing. I mean, Australia looks sort of tilted, South America is too skinny, and I don't know _why_ Asia is cut in half, but it's good enough. See here?" She pointed her finger to about the middle of one of the land-masses, and turned the book back toward him. "This is kinda where Amherst is."

Eric was looking at Crazy Lady/Ariel. _She_ was looking back at him. Both of them seemed to be reeling in shock. They seemed to be having a sort of conversation, with just one look.

Not for the first time, Marcie felt like there was a piece of the puzzle she was missing.

* * *

><p><strong>Please don't forget to review, this chapter took so long and such hard work and effort on my part, whenever I see a new review, my heart literally jumps out of my chest, it's the best gift you can give an author!<strong>


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